Robert Clark

Instagram photos and videos

@billmarr, the director of photography of the TNC stands in for a test to see how the wall for our shoot with the @nature_org. Earlier this year I was able to take part in a trash clean up sponsored by the TNC. The idea was that over several hours the volunteers filled a large dumpster and in one afternoon made this little area Texas City, Texas cleaner. A large portion of the trash was plastic, which never really goes away. The portrait of me, shot by @davesweeneyphoto shows me thinking that this will not workout well. In the end it was all fine, which was a surprise. The Nature Conservancy hosts volunteer clean ups like this throughout the country year-round. TNC is based in Arlington, VA and operates in 72 countries around the world, working tirelessly to preserve and protect the lands and waters on which all life depends. They are a great organization and I urge you all to become members.:) #uselessplastic

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Earlier this year I was able to take part in a trash clean up sponsored by the @nature_org, over several hours the volunteers filled a large dumpster and in one afternoon made this little area Texas City, Texas cleaner. A large portion of the trash was plastic, which never really goes away. The Nature Conservancy hosts volunteer clean ups like this throughout the country year-round. TNC is based in Arlington, VA and operates in 72 countries around the world, working tirelessly to preserve and protect the lands and waters on which all life depends. They are a great organization and I urge you all to become members.:) #uselessplastic

People may disagree but I think that this picture is a beautiful thing, not because of the photography or because it looks like a painting by a modern art master, but because of what it is, and how it relates to the earth and to the modern life that we all enjoy.
What is it?
It is a slice of rock from Canada, representing a span of 500,000 to 750,000 years, offers clues to what the world was like before, during, and after the meteor struck Earth. A. Before the impact (Cretaceous): The transition from pale mudstone to coal shows the climate shifting from dry to wet, perhaps stressing dinosaurs, other fauna, and flora. B. Impact (66 million years ago): No dinosaur fossils are found in or above this layer. Cracked quartz and rare metals such as iridium (scarce on Earth but plentiful in some meteorites) suggest a meteor strike. C. After the impact (Paleogene): Micro­fossils in coal indicate that forests collapsed and ferns took over.

Before the impact on the bottom of the rock is revealing a change in climate, shifting from a dry to wet environment. The center section where you can see the earth colored thin line is the time of the asteroid impact 66 million years ago, and the top section is a layer of the ash that covered the planet which leads to the death of most dinosaurs and the rise of Mammals.

Where does the name come from? The first segment of the Cenozoic Era, from 65 million years ago until the present, has historically been called the Tertiary Period. The abbreviation for the boundary between the Cretaceous and Tertiary periods is the K-T boundary, where K is the abbreviation for the German form of the word Cretaceous.

An asteroid strike 66 million years ago devastated the dinosaurs. But today's birds are proof there were a few survivors.

On my most recent article for @NatGeo, I was able to pull from my archive and create new work for the article "The Dinosaurs that Didn't Die" published in the May Issue of the magazine.
1.) a Cassowary, which would fall into the Palaeognathae order are related more closely to the Kiwi, Rheas and the Emu.

2.) Ghostly Feathers of an early swift are preserved on the 48-million-year-old fossil found in Germany, in an area known as the Messel Pits. Swifts and hummingbirds share a common ancestor that may have evolved a few million years after the mass extinction.
Messel Pit is the richest site in the world for understanding the living environment of the Eocene, between 57 million and 36 million years ago. The Pits provides unique information about the early stages of the evolution of mammals and birds.

3.)This is a MouseBird and fossils from an ancient mousebird. Today most of the mousebirds live in Africa, but these fossils were found in what today is New Mexico about 62 million years ago. The rare fossil helped scientist better understand what bird lineages split from each other, thus supporting the theory that birds expereinced an evllutionary boom soon after the asteroid strike.

Sometimes the work that I do for @NatGeo requires me to build a photo studio on location, sometimes in a famous museum, sometimes in a science laboratory and sometimes in a small and a bit smelly barn. Personally, I prefer the barn because you never know what might happen.
While working on "Dinosaurs that Didn't Die" for the May issue of the magazine I was lucky to find, friends of friends who have an Amazing farm Again thank you so much to Mimi and Richard at the beautiful Ghent Farm in upstate NY. @richardbeaven@madeinghent and thank you to @davesweeneyphoto & @kurtmutchler

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This Ostrich feather is one of my favorite pictures from the Origin of Feathers work that I shot a few years ago for @NatGeo.
The feathers of an ostrich are soft and flowing due to the fact that ostrich is a flightless birds. They have no need of the stiff feathers for wind resistance or for gliding purposes. Instead, these soft feathers are used to warm the body or are spread to provide shade for chicks.

I along with other photographers have donated prints in honor of the late photojournalist Chris Hondros who was killed seven years ago. Checkout the link in my bio or the @ChrisHondrosFund feed. The fund seeks to raise awareness and educate the public about the work of photojournalists, which the Fund will include operating a lecture series, curating and promoting exhibitions, and providing direct support, in the form of fellowship and awards, to photojournalists.